Thursday, 12 May 2011

Nourriture

I hereby declare the season of France holiday pics open!! Now, I’m sure some of you will find this a little dull, but this is pure indulgence time for me, so you might as well enjoy it too! It’s a time to look back on this holiday, enjoy the hundreds of photos I took, have fun sorting them out in categories and simply admire all the beautiful things we were lucky to see and do. It’s taking me quite some time to do all this, so today I’ll start with the easy ones: FOOD. Everyone’s favourite right? Well, I must say, going to the land of cheese and cream when you’ve got a slight lactose intolerance thing going on wasn’t ideal. I had to stay away from lots of food I would have loved to gorge myself on, and even when I thought I’d ordered dairy-free food in restaurants, cream always managed to sneak in one way or another. At least with espressos, I was on the safe side. No danger of milk touching these babies…

And these (cheaper at the counter!)…

And these…

And… no that’s it! Espressos are the coffee of the gods, even though I do like them with a substantial amount of sugar added. Anyway, they were delicious and powered us through the holiday when we managed to remember to have one in time (and not at 5pm in the afternoon, ahem). Carrying on with the drink theme, there was also a bit of yogurt drinking by Boyfriend – why don’t we get as many flavours in this country?! And yes, I got weird looks for getting my camera out in a supermarket, I’m not French people were quite ready for my snappy happy attitude…!

Talking about flavours we don’t have in this country, and I feel really hard done by here, anyone heard of speculoos ice cream? OH. MY. GOD. This ice cream has come straight down from heaven I tell you, and I’m ever so annoyed at the British population for not embracing it fully a few years back when it was introduced as a limited edition. Yes, I may have done a little bit of research here. And no, I haven’t sent Haagen Dazs an email. Yet.

But our food experience wasn’t all hunky dory. I’ve come to realise, with a few years behind me of being able to observe them from a distance rather than being in the middle of it, that the French have a serious attitude problem. Not all of them of course, but quite a few. We found a lot were fairly confused by the whole me speaking French and sounding French, but then speaking to Boyfriend in English and well, not sounding French. A couple of times, because of it, I guess they thought we were just a bunch of silly tourists who could be done over. Little did they know. I most definitely follow the French way of thinking when it comes to food standards in restaurants: if it’s not good enough (and you happen to be paying a fair price for it), then I will not hesitate to send it back. On one occasion, I’d deliberately ordered something which was cream-free. The waiter then proceeded to give me the moodiest face in the world when I said that wasn’t what I’d ordered – the recipe had been updated did I not know – well no, not if the menu isn’t updated with it… I explained I was allergic to cream, but I doubt they’ve heard of that kind of condition over there (they can be so backward sometimes, there were places where I seriously struggled to order anything without meat/ pork) and it obviously didn’t sway them one way or the other because I never even got an apology. Honestly!!! Have you experienced this kind of attitude whilst on holiday in France? I seem to notice it more and more and it irritates me to the highest point.

Of course, France is still the nation of food and there was a point to us going over by ferry: to be able to load the car and bring back lots of goodies. We didn’t hold back actually. Shame we didn’t though, because the bank card took a serious battering. Cuts and bruises and all. Would you be surprised if I told you all the biscuits are gone. They didn’t stand a chance in our home!

When I went to Cliveden after my graduation, my husband (who was then just a mere boyfriend) sent back his lobster. I remember being really embarrassed but they sent a new one out and said the chef had probably double salted it.

Fair play to you for complaining, it's always worth doing especially if what you're buying isn't cheap. x

I can imagine your problems trying to find lactose-free food, it's bad enough over there for veggies with the choice being salade verte or, er, salade verte! Mmm to lovely french cheese, bread and wine though! (You know you can get Crunch bars in Tesco?) xx

Don't worry I'm just the same with British food, I have many memories of a carboot full of bags after a much needed stop at tesco or the Co op. It's a shame I can't go more often now! But I've found a few online international delivery websites for british food. The question is : Am I ready to take this last step??!!

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